TRAVEL SUMMARY 2001-PRESENT

(CONDENSED/NON-EXCLUSIVE)

South America

Hiked 60 lbs food and supplies once every 5-7 days into the mountains through various routes.Traveling unguided, using maps and local knowledge through the Parque National Nahuel Huapi, I spent 30 days exploring these mountains solo and with friends.

-Summited via Tromen Lake, ARG NE 8,600’ Randonee Ascent and SE face 8,000’ Ski Descent. Slept at the trailhead and made the ascent and descent in under 10 hours.

CHILE

•Volcan Villarrica (2,860 m Volcano) : Pucon, Chile

Summited, saw lava!!, and ski-raced down from the crater as an athlete in Avalancha En El Volcan free-ride ski competition. Had a blast!

•La Chimenea : La Parva, Farellones, Chile

Ski Randonee ascent and downhill descent through the chute and runout.

•Fundo Yerba Loca National Park

Randonee ski toured to a Marmot dome tent in the middle of these mountains.We toured to and skied lines from this base that had been constructed and left in the mountains June-September 2016 as a social experiment. We helped disassemble and finish the project September 23rd hoping to have the tent in the mountains for locals and visitors to utilize again next season.

I skied and explored Glacier Bay National Park outside of Haines Alaska for 4 1/2 days. My group, 4 of us total, took a private 2 seater plane up onto the glacier and were dropped with 3 weeks worth of food, a Snowtrekker Expedition Base Camp tent, and Pfeiffer the Alaskan Malamute for a week of skiing and exploring. We we’re picked up after 4.5 days due to warm weather and increasing avalanche activity. I stopped counting avalanches after I head/saw #40. I learned quite a bit about variable snow and glacial travel in those four days.

A day of powder play keeps the doctor away.

The altitude affects everything from the tree line to the carbonation in a bottle of bubbly. I’m waitressing to earn my keep here at the Rustler Lodge in Alta, Utah and popping bottles in the dining room is part of the gig. The warmer the bottle, the higher the pressure.

The higher the hike, the thinner the air. Upon acclimating to the elevation, I am beginning to feel living at the end of Little Cottonwood Canyon; especially now that I don’t huff & puff quite as much up a flight of stairs as I used to. Every day the lungs are feeling stronger, which makes earning my turns ever enticing.

The first storm cycle nuked a rocking 52 inches. This should be the norm for the area, but unfortunately Alta Ski Area hasn’t broken 500 inches in a year since 2009 according to www.onthesnow.com. The beauty of mountain culture is the general collective happiness to be alive and in the mountains. There is nothing like living about 8,000 feet with others who share that same thirst for high altitude adventure. Here in Little Cottonwood Canyon, optimism and hope fill the air as all the guests and locals cross their frosty toes.

Oregon ranks high in its moon like volcanic structures that pierce the sky and illuminate the eye.

View of Mt. Hood from Burnt Lake Oregon

Utah on the other hand, is chalk full of peaks; many of which happen to be connected unlike the Cascade Range of volcanoes that pimple the west coast.

Unknown Mountain Range SE Adjacent to Utah Lake

Oregon’s forests are moss covered and fairy filled. I’ve never hiked in anything so lush without having to cross country boarders.

Punchbowl Falls, Columbia River Gorge Oregon

Don’t let the desert fool you, the water is Utah is steamy and dreamy.

Diamond Fork Hot Springs Uinta National Forest Utah

I will say, I miss the west coast ocean swells…

Cape Lookout Oregon, Falcon Cove Oregon, San Juan Islands Washington

…and the epic spring/summer mountaineering.

Hogsback Ridgeline Mt. Hood South Side 2015

4th of July 2015 Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood Summit 11,240 ft.

Its silly to compare volcanos to mountains, or oceans to hot springs when they’re all equally as nourishing in their own light. Any experience at the same destination is going to be a new journey. Comparing, analyzing, and thinking in general keeps us from “living” in the NOW: which is where I want to be. Here I am Utah! Let’s be friends.